The results of their discussion were shared to the rest of the housemates the next day.
As promised, Lunaria did not reveal the reason for Kaze's lack of participation when she told them about the rest of the stuff that she said to him. When they found out that Kaze was specifically chosen by her already, most of them seemed relieved and excited. Since they didn't know the true reason why Kaze was chosen, they simply assumed this was Lunaria's way of getting Kaze to fight others.
With that said, Lunaria began preparing for the selection match at once. There were only a few days left before the Moon Festival began, so she needed to make haste with her actions. Thankfully, with the support of the Student Council and Frey working behind the scene, the notice was made to the entire student body of the first-years.
It didn't take long for the names of those who wanted to compete to start overflowing.
Even if there were people who chose not to join due to not wanting to lose their house's face from facing the top 10, there were also people who wanted a chance to impress some of their form mates and even possibly become Lunaria's friend in the process. Needless to say, all forms of aspiration had to be proven through their actions and strength. It would be pointless if Lunaria deemed them unworthy.
"Lunaria, remind me again, why am I here?"
"Oh, I might need your help with the test."
"Wait, you just want me to fight on your behalf, right?"
"… Where's Frey? I don't think she said she will be this late…"
"Stop avoiding the details!"
Right now, Kaze and Lunaria were in the training grounds with a bunch of enthusiastic first-years. Since they had advertised to hold the test here, they were waiting for it to begin on Lunaria's instructions. They weren't informed of how the test would be held, so they could do nothing but wait impatient.
As of now, Lunaria was waiting for the appearance of Frey, who promised to guide them on the test. While it might be unfair to allow one of their opponents to help judge because she could take this chance to catch a glimpse at their abilities, this wasn't a match that mattered in the first place. It was just meant to be entertainment, something that everyone could enjoy no matter the results. The significance of the Moon Festival far exceeded the display performance, so Lunaria wasn't interested in the fact that their cards were revealed to the opponents.
As the top 10s who agreed to this, it was likely they also didn't intend on simply crushing their opponents, but to make it as interesting and exciting as possible for the crowd. Ranks and points weren't considered to this, but it would make sense if those who participated were rewarded with some extra points at the end of the performance. However, that was only something secondary that would be later considered by the chosen participants.
With some of the Student Council members here as well to help with the coordination and examination of the prominent members, it helped to look over the entire grounds in general. If Lunaria were to look over so many participants herself, she would have to spend the entire day and things would get boring really quickly. As such, the reliance on the Student Council for their expertise and Frey for her judgement skills were necessary.
As for Kaze…
"Yoohoo! Sorry I'm late~" Frey waved at Lunaria as she ran towards them cheerfully. "My lecturer wouldn't let us go so easily~"
"I-It's Frey-sama!"
"No way, the Ambiguous Death-bringer herself is here…?"
"Fwah~ Lunaria-hime really has an extensive connection line… to even get Frey-sama to show up for a simple participation selection…"
"I wonder if we will get to see her fight today?"
"I'm going to get her autograph later…"
Various forms of reactions came from the crowd, mostly of admiration and respect for the girl who just casually made her appearance. Kaze also reacted with the crowd and tensed up, knowing that she was someone on par with Lunaria in terms of fighting capabilities.
She walked over to Lunaria's side after casually greeting some of the Student Council members. Of course, she immediately picked up the topic about Kaze.
"So, is he the person?"
"Frey-san… please don't."
With Frey's eyes gleaming with great interest, Lunaria let out an exasperated sigh as she feared for what this girl might do to Kaze. Even though it was clear that her previous remark about Kaze was a joke, it still didn't really make sense for Lunaria as to how Frey could have known of Kaze.
"… Attention everyone, we will start the selection soon!" Lunaria used wind magic to amplify her voice, shoving aside her thoughts for now. "My name is Lunaria Sven Rentaria, first daughter of the Rentaria royal family. I will be explaining how the selection works. For the time being, please understand that we are not going to be choosing you for your rank or your fighting prowess, but simply because of our own interest. Therefore, even if you are higher rank or better than others, you will not necessarily be selected."
At her words, most of the students nodded in agreement. Indeed, it wouldn't be a fair selection in that case, especially when she called for the entire first-year students instead of just students of specific rank and abilities. Even if they were going to fight against the top 10, that didn't mean it will be a sword fight for all they knew. There weren't any rules to clarify anything yet, so all options were being considered.
"But before that, allow me to introduce one of the members whom I have already handpicked personally," Lunaria declared, pulling Kaze next to her. "This is Kaze, who will be representing as one of the members to participate in the upcoming competition. What this means is that you will be competing for only 8 slots remaining!"
At this point, most people didn't know Kaze yet. While they might have seen Lunaria walking together with Kaze from time to time, they just assumed that she was friends with him since he got selected. Naturally, this created some disagreement among the crowd on the basis of Lunaria being biased.
However, Lunaria had already thought of this beforehand. The reason she chose to declare Kaze free from the selection process wasn't just a sign of his abilities, but also because she wanted to make it clear for everyone present that she didn't choose Kaze simply due to bias. It was to ensure that everyone's doubts disappeared as to why she chose Kaze instead.
"I know all of you may have your doubts, but I will prove that Kaze is eligible based on the following test, so please be patient," Lunaria continued speaking. "Without further ado, Frey here will be letting all of you know about the selection test."
Passing the stage to Frey, Lunaria made a smug smile to Kaze. This only further agitated Kaze, for he never expected for him to become the centre of attention due to her words. Lunaria might have overwhelming persuasion power, but that didn't mean she was able to instantly make them agree to him being one of the selected members without passing the test.
"Ay~ can everyone hear me?" Frey waved her hand enthusiastically to the crowd. "After discussion with Lunaria, we have decided to hold the selection using… a shield!"
At her words, the students got confused and looked at each other for an answer. It was obvious that it didn't make sense considering that they expected to be tested physically or through a fight instead. A shield by itself made no sense.
"What I meant was… by any way of attacking a shield or a barrier that we have specifically made," Frey conjured up a protective shield in front of her with magic. "All you have to do is deal damage to it and we will consider your ability~"
What this meant for the students was that the performance with the top 10 was likely through their battle prowess. It might be a little biased for those who specialized in trapping and strategy instead of destructive power, but then again it was never specified they had to destroy the barrier. All they had to show was what they were best at and therefore be judged simultaneously. It was simple and effective way, considering that both physical and magical power could be taken into consideration.
"If we are unable to judge from the shield alone, we will request you to duel with a dummy instead~" Frey gestured to a training dummy on her side. "Of course, if you feel the shield is too easy, you can choose to duel the dummy too. By the way, this dummy is increasingly more difficult to deal with since it will be controlled by me, so make sure to do your best~"
At her words, the students shuddered in fear at the imagination of how strong a dummy could be. Under the control of someone as strong as Frey, it would be equivalent to a death wish. Frey herself already excelled in magic control even if her weapon of choice was a close-combat item, making her all-the-more difficult to deal with. The only light for them was that their opponent controlling the dummy wasn't someone like the Depressed Magician, who specifically fought with magic as a mage.
"For a demonstration of how strong the dummy is, why don't we have Kaze here take part?" Frey pointed out. "That way, I am sure most of you all will be able to get a grasp of how hard it is and whether or not Kaze qualifies, am I right~?"
At her words, the students immediately agreed. Even if it was mostly the guys who were particularly enthusiastic with the choice of seeing Kaze fail, there were also girls who wanted to see for themselves why Lunaria would choose Kaze in particular before the selection. What was it that caused the dragonkin princess herself to take interest in a man like that, even on a normal day? This was the question that intrigued everyone the most.
Meanwhile, Kaze felt like his legs had gone jelly at the initiation stated by Frey. He certainly had not expected her to do something like that and was not looking forward to accepting the judgement of the crowd. In the first place, he was not asked to show off his skills in front of the crowd. This was what he was most worried of doing.
"Go on, Kaze," Lunaria gave him a confidence boost with a whisper from behind. "Remember your resolve."
At the same time, some of the Student Council members cleared a small spot for the dummy fight that would take place. Since they didn't need that big a ring for something so simple, it was fairly small and everyone was able to surround it easily.
Frey waved her hand in the air and the dummy that remained still next to her came to life. She had imbued her magic into it and took command of its actions. Evidently, she was one of the better students at using Reanimate magic because of how life-like the dummy's movements were. With the dummy coming to life before their very eyes, the students let out gasps of awe.
As if she hadn't displayed her talent enough, Frey giggled and moved her fingers slightly. The dummy reacted by running towards the students before leaping into the air. Making two flips in the air as it jumped, the dummy demonstrated great responses as it landed onto the floor. It made another small roll forward and jumped into the circle, causing the students to clap in amazement. The way it moved was like a flexible gymnast, making the challenge sound even harder than it already was.
"Come on Kaze, everyone's waiting," Frey beckoned him, with the dummy staring intently at Kaze.
With a groan, Kaze picked up his sword and walked towards the dummy. Most of the students were already booing him and gritting their teeth, wanting to see him fail. It was hard to ignore all the discouragement he was getting when there was so much hope placed on him at the same time. Lunaria didn't care what the students thought of him, because she knew that he would blow away their expectations with the dummy.
Entering the circle, the Student Council members closed it off with a barrier just in case of something happening. This meant that students outside wouldn't suffer the effects of any physical or magical attacks from inside.
Kaze unsheathed his sword and placed the scabbard aside where he wouldn't trip over it. Facing the dummy opposing him, Kaze steeled himself for what that would come. The dummy reacted in a similar fashion, knowing that Kaze was ready to battle.
"Ready? Start!" Lunaria declared, allowing the fight to begin.
Immediately, both Kaze and the dummy ran towards each other. Kaze was curious as to how the dummy would fight when it had no weapon, but he realized that it was holding a magic sword upon activation. Gritting his teeth silently due to the sword being conjured by magic itself, it was going to be a difficult fight for him.
The two rushed past each other as they exchanged a single blow. Turning around first, Kaze hopped right at the dummy and swung his sword down from above. The dummy didn't even need to look back before it twisted its arm around and blocked the strike easily.
This was one of the benefits of using a dummy since it was being controlled by a third party, allowing it to block blows it couldn't see coming. That also meant the person controlling the dummy must be fairly skilled and able to react quickly to sword blows, giving more credit to Frey. It was easy to forget that the dummy wasn't a real person from the controls she was exhibiting.
Kaze wasn't upset by the block and continued planning forward. Pressing on harder and harder, Kaze now emphasized on his speed to outperform the dummy. He continued dealing blows onto the dummy itself, striking with fiery and precision at its arms. If he could somehow decapitate them, then he had a chance of winning since it relied on magic 'sword'. Unlike normal swords, swords made of magic required extra effort to harden it so that it could intercept any blows it received.
Exchanging fierce blows with the dummy, Kaze made a large swinging motion towards the dummy to trick it before suddenly dropping to the floor and swiping his legs across. This made the dummy collapsed to the floor. He caught his sword, which was thrown into the air after making the swinging motion and brought it down on the dummy's head.
The dummy wasn't letting up either, immediately moving away and jumping to its feet again. Rushing right at Kaze, it made a few jabs forward which Kaze avoided as though he was boxing. Stepping left and right while backing off, Kaze lunged forward at the next swipe and bashed into it. Since it swung its right arm to the left, it exposed its shoulder and allowed Kaze to knock it.
This made it stumble backwards, creating a slight advantage for Kaze to press forward once more.
"Fast!" Lunaria gulped upon seeing the reaction speed of the dummy. "This certainly was harder than I thought…"
On the other hand, Frey looked like she was having a ton of fun. Her eyes glimmered in excitement while she was now using both her hands to control the dummy. This only made it even more agile and powerful, for she was making even more precise control on it. Being able to move all its limbs independently without any awkward movement, Lunaria felt like Frey wasn't being faithful with how hard she promised to go on the students.
Without any space to breathe, Kaze jumped back and allowed the dummy to pursue him around the circle. Suddenly spinning backwards when he saw the dummy's stance dropping to a running motion, he threw in a backwards kick that struck right into the dummy's chest. This caused it to fly backwards onto the floor, not before it raised its arms to block another attack from Kaze.
The dummy anticipated another strike from Kaze but misjudged since that was the usual reaction for a normal person. Jabbing his sword through its chest instead of swinging it at the dummy, Kaze slowly got up from the floor while breathing raggedly. The goal was to only defeat the dummy, not 'kill' it.
"With this… I won… right?" Kaze asked, directing the question at Frey.
"Ooh~ what an unexpected outcome," Frey dropped her fingers and clapped lightly. "Congratulations, you passed~"
The students who were previously jeering all fell silent. In fact, most of the students had their jaws dropped at the result of the fight. Even though it ended as quickly as it started, it was enough to demonstrate the strength of the dummy, and most importantly, Kaze. Regardless of what one might think, whether it be a lacklustre fight without any magic or a rather boring fight since there was not much action, it was clear that the difficulty bar was much higher than anticipated.
Only students who focused on sword skills would be able to understand how significant this was. To be able to defeat a dummy that acted more like a marionette, an even more advanced version of the dummy that was akin to a real human, without the use of magic was no easy task. And yet, to do it in such a short time without expanding too much effort, it was not what one could do without mastering their sword techniques alone.
A few months ago when Kaze came to Tristania, it was hard to say if he could perform as well as he did right now. All factors in play, including the time spent and how he fought, it was clear that the few short months served him well. Kaze wasn't too satisfied with the outcome seeing how humiliating it was to struggle so much against a dummy, but he was fine with his improvement so far. To not rely on pure magic when fighting against a solely 'magical' opponent was already a huge improvement. In the first place, he didn't want to rely on pure magic but his sword skills alone.
Among the crowd, only Kaze's friends and Frey clapped loudly at his victory. This included Yuuji and the others who came for the selection as well, for this was the first time in a while that they had seen Kaze facing off against an opponent in months. Even though it was a dummy, it was safe to say that Kaze might as well had fought against a real person with decent sword skills.
"I have to apologise, Kaze, because I wasn't honest," Frey stuck her tongue out in slight embarrassment. "I accidentally went overboard with my control~"
"Haa… no wonder I felt like the fight was too difficult for the standards we have placed for the others…" Kaze muttered, sighing and shaking his head at the same time. "Were you trying to get me killed? There were many times where I felt like it had inhumane reactions."
"Sorry~ I got too excited and delved into the fight deeper than I expected," Frey patted him on the back when he returned to their side.
"With this, I hope everyone else is satisfied," Lunaria addressed the stunned crowd. "Any objections?"
Needless to say, they could only look away uncomfortably in the face of Lunaria's huge smile.
- - - - -
At the same time as the selection was going on…
Two individuals showed up in front of a castle. They were already walking down its gloomy hallway, dimly lit from the atmosphere they were used to.
"W-Why do you think he called us? Do you think it's about the failure of the last mission?"
"I don't know… it wasn't my fault that it failed, so why am I involved…"
"I sure hope not, because it was just a trial run as stated before..."
The two arrived in front of a metal door. At their presence, it swung open to reveal the figure of another person watching a certain footage. Both individuals were clear what the footage was about based on what they could see, causing them to shudder in fear.
"M-My lord, you called?"
"Mm… fascinating… Ah, yes, please come in."
The door closed as soon as the two stepped foot into the room. It was a room that contained no purpose other than the isolation of space around them. This gave the two doubts as to what would happen to them.
"My lord, regarding that footage…"
"Ah, don't mind me. I had to reconfirm the suspicion."
"Suspicion?"
The first person responded to the weird statement made by their lord.
"Is it not about our failure… my lord?"
"It is, but rest assured. I am not mad. Our liege has spoken."
"H-He has?"
"It is rare for a direct order to come from him…"
Mixed reactions came from the two on the mention of 'their liege'. They were referring to someone of higher position than their 'lord'.
"Yes. Based on the report, we have determined that the result was not due to failure or negligence, but instead an external factor."
"We already know that, we were there. What's new?"
"The source of destruction… has been identified."
"I-Identified, my lord?"
"Indeed. It is due to the dragonkin present."
"Ahh, the dragonkin huh? We thought that she was just strong, but it seems like we were wrong…"
"During the second stage, it got destroyed too quickly. Based on the reaction given and the explosion, it would be most suitable to determine that the dragonkin was the one who directly affected the core itself."
"Y-Yes, my lord?"
"What I'm getting is… that dragonkin could be the key to our success. Regarding 'that' project."
"T-That?! You mean…"
"You know what you have to do, don't you?"
"Yes. How would you like it to be done, my lord?"
"Y-Yes, my lord. Dealing with dragonkins are…"
"Don't worry. Our liege has bestowed us an artifact that would aid the process of capturing the dragonkin."
"O-Ohh!!!"
Both of their eyes lit up at their lord showing them a certain circular object that looked as though a metal claw was grasping it. Based on the design, it was probably something of high value but fragile due to the nature of its usage.
"Go. Take any men you think capable. We don't need to do the dirty job ourselves."
"We just need to shift the blame if we fail then?"
"Yes… humans will do."
"Indeed, my lord."
"Take as many as you need. You know what to do. While failure is tolerated, this shall be treated with utmost importance."
"Our liege has spoken, then?"
"Yes… Go."
With a confirmation from each of them, the two immediately left the room.